It's time for my seventh annual look back at the year's top 10 moments in
TV ratings! As
always, the criteria are pretty subjective, but I go for a blend of 1)
relatively isolated incidents that are impressive for their sheer
enormity/cultural impact and 2)
moments that exemplify much larger trends in TV this year. Please let me know about my most egregious rankings/omissions. Happy New Year!

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Scorpion (R) (0.6) adjusted up while Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (0.9) and Rudolph's Shiny New Year (0.7) and The Great American Baking Show (R) (0.5) and Kevin Can Wait (R) (0.6) adjusted down.

Please note that ABC is pending preemptions in the Monday Night Football local markets.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

It was a yet another late-December premiere for Undercover Boss (1.1/1.0), but it went well behind last year's 1.6 opener (which had a lot more help from an NFL overrun on Sunday). The Boss will occupy the 8:00 hour until the premiere of Hunted in late January. It led into Code Black (0.9), getting through another original episode at 10/9c.

Everyone else had a mix of repeats and specials, with ABC's Robin Roberts special (0.6) finishing last among all big four programs.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

ABC's annual 'The Year' special (1.1) topped Tuesday and was up a tenth year-to-year. The CW began its short-order holiday series Terry Crews Save Christmas (0.3), while Scream Queens (0.5) went out with a whimper on Fox.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:The Great Christmas Light Fight (1.1) and The Great American Baking Show (R) (0.7) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

NBC was on top of Monday with a two-hour America's Got Talent Christmas special (1.8) leading into a solid preview for Tuesday Voice filler The Wall (1.6) at 10/9c. Wall skewed noticeably younger than Talent, retaining barely two-thirds of its total viewership but close to 90% in the demo.

CBS' one-hour Michelle Obama/Oprah Winfrey special skewed quite old, with over 9 million total viewers but just a 1.3 demo rating. That made it little help to a special 9/8c edition of Man with a Plan (1.1). 2 Broke Girls (1.2) also moved back a half hour, to 9:30 (which it will be inheriting permanently in 2017), while Scorpion (1.2) inched up at 10/9c.

We'll see about Monday Night Football preemptions again, but ABC had another two hours of The Great Christmas Light Fight (1.2) leading into a repeat of The Great American Baking Show (0.9).

Fox went with more drama repeats (0.4/0.4), while CW's Supergirl repeat (0.4) led into low-rated special 'The Marie Claire Young Women's Honors' (0.2).

FINALS UPDATE:Sunday Night Football (8.1) adjusted up while 60 Minutes (2.3) and Elementary (0.7) and Football Night in America (3.4) and Breakthrough Prize (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

With a national NFL overrun, CBS was the only network in the original series game with 60 Minutes (2.8), NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4), Madam Secretary (1.1) and Elementary (0.9). These numbers are uncertain in prelims since the shows started at 40 minutes after the hour on the East Coast (or about 10 minutes after their listed times).

NBC easily dominated the night with another dose of Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football; the game's 7.0ish prelim was a top-five rating for the franchise this season.

ABC had its annual four-hour The Sound of Music telecast (0.8/1.2/1.3/1.2), which will be up year-to-year (vs. last year's 1.0). And Fox had the awards show 'Breakthrough Prize' (0.7) leading into comedy repeats (0.7/0.6/0.7/0.4). Prize would be up vs. last year's 0.4, but may be impacted in finals thanks to local NFL overruns.

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Monday, December 19, 2016

This is an interactive chart allowing you to compare seasonal A18-49+ ratings (through 2015-16) for up to three different shows. For now, it only includes the 130 big four scripted shows with at least a 200 Career A18-49+, the same shows included on the Career A18-49+ Sortable Table.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

A mostly up week for ABC's comedy fall finales continued as Last Man Standing (1.2) and Dr. Ken (0.9) headed into the holidays on an up note. It was also a nice night for 20/20 (1.0), which grew out of a repeat Shark Tank (0.8).

CBS was also mostly-but-not-entirely original, with Blue Bloods in repeat mode (0.9) while MacGyver (1.0) and Hawaii Five-0 (1.1) were original.

NBC got a surprising Friday Christmas gift as Caught on Camera (0.9) was way above average, leading into Dateline (1.0).

Fox finished out the season/series of The Exorcist with a fifth consecutive 0.6, leading out of yet another 1.0 for Hell's Kitchen.

And the CDub stayed in holiday special mode with the Hollywood Christmas Parade (0.3), matching last year.

Friday, December 16, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:The Big Bang Theory (3.4) and Thursday Night Football (4.3) adjusted up while The Great Indoors (1.6) and Thursday Night Football Pregame (2.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

CBS got a bit of a jolt from an eventful The Big Bang Theory (3.3), which grew by a couple tenths to close out 2016. That helped The Great Indoors (1.7) and Mom (1.5), which were both above average, but was less felt later on with Life in Pieces (even at 1.3) and Pure Genius (down to 0.9).

ABC dug into its holiday special vault again for the duo of half-hour Prep & Landing specials (0.8/0.8), lost another notch at 9/8c with The Great American Baking Show (0.8), and then had a special holiday-themed edition of summer series What Would You Do? (0.7).

After a couple big weeks of Thursday Night Football, the Seahawks and Rams brought the franchise back down to a 2.7 preliminary rating, tying a season low. This should adjust up into the 4's after finals/NFL Network are included.

The CW went with the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball (0.4), typically one of its stronger holiday offerings, while repeat season arrived on Fox with Hell's Kitchen (0.6) and Rosewood (0.5).

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Fox previewed its new Lee Daniels drama Star (2.2) in the 9/8c hour, opening with the same solid rating that fellow Wednesday drama newbies Lethal Weapon and Designated Survivor had during premiere week. It surely got some help from its compatible Empire lead-in (2.7), though the fall finale was only able to make a small rebound from last week's low at a special 8/7c time.

It was the last original night of the fall for ABC Wednesday, and 9/8c anchor Modern Family (2.0) fell to a new low. But most of the other shows were back to relatively normal after some brutal lows last week: The Goldbergs (1.7), Speechless (1.6) and Black-ish (1.6) were all up by multiple tenths, while Designated Survivor (1.2) inched up as it heads into a nearly three-month hiatus.

CBS had another healthy Survivor finale night, with a 2.0 for the first two hours (down just two tenths year-to-year) and a preliminary 1.4 for the 10/9c reunion.

NBC has had so many other Wednesday events that it didn't need to bust out the Saturday Night Live Christmas special until mid-December, but it was still potent at a 1.6/1.5 rating, up a bit from last year. It led out of a solid Pentatonix Christmas special (1.4) in the 8:00 hour.

And the CW went with a Christmas movies countdown (0.3) and a repeat of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (0.3).

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

NBC had a nice bounce for the two-hour season finale of The Voice (2.4/2.5), which actually had one of the franchise's best trends in a mostly down second half of the season. It was pretty close to even in Plus with last fall's 2.9 finale (though that was a fairly underwhelming result in relation to other episodes late last fall). It led out of a recap special at 8/7c (1.7), which was quite healthy vs. last year's 1.8.

The Voice was still down week-to-week in both of the first two hours (including vs. This Is Us at 9:00), and that may have helped ABC's comedies head into the holidays on an up note. The Middle (1.6) led off with a two-tenth uptick, and the rest (American Housewife (1.5), Fresh Off the Boat (1.2) and The Real O'Neals (0.9)) were up one tenth apiece. But the network went behind even its recent Agents of SHIELD numbers with a Jimmy Kimmel Live repeat at 10/9c (0.5).

The other networks showed no such benefit; on CBS, NCIS (1.8) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.2) were even and sandwiched a slightly down Bull (1.4). Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) slipped back into fractional land, leading into steady New Girl (0.8) and Scream Queens (0.5). And the CW went with repeats of The Flash (0.3) and soon-bound-for-Tuesday Legends of Tomorrow (0.2).

Just one quick note this week: The Walking Dead went up by just 3% for its midseason finale, closing the half-season on a 5.09 demo. It had a similarly small bump last fall, but this still narrowly went down as a new worst-ever y2y trend for the show at -27%.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:The Great Christmas Light Fight (1.1) and The Great American Baking Show (R) (0.6) and Timeless (1.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

It was a fairly soft night for the CBS Monday comedy lineup, with anchors Kevin Can Wait (1.4) and 2 Broke Girls (1.2) inching down in the prelims. Man with a Plan (1.2) was even and The Odd Couple (1.0) slightly up at the bottoms of the hours. And Scorpion (1.1) inched down to round out the night. Kevin and The Odd Couple are done for 2016 now, but the others will return to lead out of a Michelle Obama special next Monday.

NBC began The Voice's finale week with a bit of an uptick to 2.2. It was another very sharp year-to-year decline vs. the excellent year-ago season, as last fall had a 3.2 for the Monday finale (which was also paired with a huge Adele special). Timeless closed the year with another 1.2, and we will next see it leading out of Celebrity Apprentice in January.

ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight (1.3/1.2) and repeat of The Great American Baking Show (0.8) appear to be pending Monday Night Football preemptions?

The holidays have already begun on the CW with specials Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (0.3) and Greatest Holiday Commercials (0.2), as well as on Fox with repeats of Gotham (0.5) and Lucifer (0.5).

FINALS UPDATE:Sunday Night Football (8.7) and The OT (3.9) adjusted up while 60 Minutes (1.2) and Football Night in America (3.1) and NFL Overrun (5.4) and The Simpsons (2.3) and Son of Zorn (1.2) and The Last Man on Earth (0.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC's dramas are done for 2016, but the network's Sunday ratings situation improved immensely with a telecast of animated movie Frozen (1.7) and a making-of special (0.9) in the 10/9c hour.

CBS' special programming produced far less impressive results, as a pair of colorized episodes from The Dick Van Dyke Show (0.7) skewed incredibly old (with over 7 million total viewers). We also got a look at the value of NCIS: Los Angeles to the whole night, as the Dick Van Dyke reruns seemingly tanked Madam Secretary (0.7) and Elementary (0.6) later in the night.

With a second straight national NFL overrun, Fox's The Simpsons (2.4) and Son of Zorn (1.3) were even in the 8:00 hour, but the 9:00 shows Family Guy (1.4) and The Last Man on Earth (1.0) were down. In terms of male-skewing competition, they went up against The Walking Dead's midseason finale plus...

...an extremely strong Sunday Night Football game, charged up by another Dallas Cowboys appearance. The high-7 prelim rating was actually SNF's biggest Sunday prelim of the season, which is a pretty impressive feat this late in the season, and it should adjust up well into the 8's after finals.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

The return of the CBS dramas put the eye back on top on Friday, despite small declines for MacGyver (1.0) and Hawaii Five-0 (1.2). Blue Bloods was steady at 1.2 in the 10/9c hour.

On ABC, it was yet another 1.1 leading off from the durable Last Man Standing, but the rest of the night struggled as Dr. Ken (0.8) stayed on the low end, while Shark Tank (1.0) had a really weak night and 20/20 (0.8) fell back to its usual self.

Fox's Hell's Kitchen (1.0) and The Exorcist (0.6) both came back after two weeks off, and both were even.

The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was back to a preliminary 0.2 (after hitting a prelim 0.3 last week and later adjusting down). It led out of 0.4 from The Vampire Diaries.

And NBC had Caught on Camera (0.6) and Dateline (1.1), each down a tenth.

Friday, December 9, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Life in Pieces (1.3) and Thursday Night Football (5.6) adjusted up while Thursday Night Football Pregame (2.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

Opposite a much weaker Thursday Night Football, the CBS lineup had some upticks, even with The Big Bang Theory (1.7) in repeats. It looks like The Great Indoors (1.5) is going to be yet another one of those shows that looks a lot better after Big Bang repeats than it does after originals, but actually going up by 0.2 from last week seems rather crazy. Mom (1.4) had a small uptick at 9/8c, while Life in Pieces (1.2) was even continued to look a little softer in the late fall. And Pure Genius (1.0) finished out a shockingly decent week for the CBS medical dramas by growing back to its series premiere rating.

ABC reran holiday specials Toy Story that Time Forgot (0.8) and Shrek the Halls (0.9), each down just a tenth from their Thursday telecasts a year ago. The Great American Baking Show (0.9) was then down a tenth at 9/8c, and ABC tacked on the probable series finale of Notorious (0.5) to absolutely no interest at 10/9c.

Fox had its second annual Taraji P. Henson holiday special (0.9) in the 8:00 hour. This was way down from last year's 1.5, but Empire was a much hotter show back then, plus the special was actually run in Empire's regular timeslot in 2015. After a slightly improved lead-in, Pitch (0.8) got a much-welcome uptick for its season/series finale.

The CW rounded out its post-crossover week with Legends of Tomorrow (0.7), which was slightly above its usual 0.6 level. Supernatural (0.6) was even.

As for Thursday Night Football, the strong matchup between Kansas City and Oakland had a high-3's prelim. That was way down from last week's high 4, but still one of TNF's better broadcast-only prelims of the season. It should adjust into the 5's after finals/NFL Network are included.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

NBC's annual live musical event moved to Wednesday for the first time due to the Thursday Night Football conflict. Hairspray Live! averaged a 2.3ish prelim (2.5/2.3/2.0 by hour), which was very close to Peter Pan Live! from two years ago (2.4) but a big step down from the more successful entries in the tradition: last year's The Wiz Live! (3.4) and the one that started it all, The Sound of Music Live! in 2013 (4.6).

Though Hairspray didn't seem that huge, it was still a night of major carnage elsewhere. ABC's The Goldbergs (1.5) and Speechless (1.3) each stepped down by two more tenths from already soft results last week, and Black-ish (1.2) got absolutely crushed with the added difficulty of a repeat Modern Family (1.1) lead-in. And Designated Survivor (1.1) rounded out the night with a new low at 10/9c.

Fox also had new lows by multiple tenths with Lethal Weapon (1.4) and Empire (2.5).

CBS was on the downswing with Survivor (1.7) and Criminal Minds (1.3), though Code Black (1.1) was the winner of the night at least on a week-to-week basis by actually upticking.

And on the CW, Arrow (0.7) went all the way back to normal after its crossover spike last week, while Frequency dipped to its first ever 0.2.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

On one of the last remaining days of 2016 with five networks airing all regular lineups, NBC's This Is Us (2.8) was the runaway standout once again, upticking to tie its series high. Its surrounding programs The Voice (1.9) and Chicago Fire (1.7) were both even.

It was a rough evening for the ABC comedy lineup, as The Middle (1.4), American Housewife (1.4), Fresh Off the Boat (1.1) and The Real O'Neals (0.8) were all down, and most of them by two tenths. Agents of SHIELD clung to another 0.8 at 10/9c.

On CBS, NCIS (1.7) gave back its uptick from the last episode, falling back to a low-end rating, but Bull (1.5) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.2) had typical results.

Monday's Supergirl repeats meant this was the first chance to see a CW original the week after the enormous DC crossover. And there was a nice audience left behind for The Flash (1.2), which was still ahead of most of its results from earlier in the fall. No Tomorrow had 0.3 again at 9/8c.

And Fox was steady (if still in CW territory) with Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.0), New Girl (0.8) and Scream Queens (0.5).

After a big penultimate week spike, Westworld followed it up on finale night by only staying flat week-to-week at a 1.02 demo. (However, it did set new highs in both total viewers and the 18-34 demos.) It still goes down as one of the cable elite, but a long wait for season two begins.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:2 Broke Girls (1.3) and The Voice (2.1) adjusted up while The Great Christmas Light Fight (1.1) and Conviction (0.6) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC brought back holiday staple The Great Christmas Light Fight (1.3/1.2) leading into Conviction (0.8) at 10/9c. This would be about the same raw number as last year's Light Fight premiere (1.2) but the network is pending Monday Night Football preemptions.

CBS had another solid night from Kevin Can Wait (1.5), but new lows from Man with a Plan (1.2) and 2 Broke Girls (1.2). The network got a big upgrade from a repeat of The Big Bang Theory (1.4) at 9:30, leading into The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2.1) in the 10/9c hour. After a massive drop last year, the fashion show shed another couple tenths this time.

NBC had a fairly typical night with The Voice (2.1/2.0) and Timeless (1.2), while Fox basically matched its usual drama numbers with two-hour special Showtime at the Apollo (1.1). The CW had repeats of Supergirl (0.4/0.3).

It's time for another edition of Renewology Swings of the Week. Which
shows had the best and worst weeks in terms of Renewology odds? These
numbers cover Week 11
of the 2016-17 season (November 28-December 4).

FINALS UPDATE:America's Funniest Home Videos (1.0) and Sunday Night Football (6.1) and The OT (4.2) adjusted up while 60 Minutes (1.4) and Bull (R) (0.8) and MacGyver (R) (0.6) and Football Night in America (2.6) and NFL Overrun (5.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

A regrettable fall for drama programming came to an end on ABC Sunday with the fall finale of Once Upon a Time (0.9) and the two-hour season or series finale of Secrets and Lies (0.7), as Once limped to the finish with its third fractional result in the last five episodes.

Fox had a national NFL lead-in, and 8:00 comedies The Simpsons (2.4) and Son of Zorn (1.3) did worse than their previous post-overrun numbers this season. However, it didn't stop Family Guy (1.6) and The Last Man on Earth (1.1) from having rather high-end results in the 9:00 hour, despite facing HBO's Westworld finale.

CBS didn't have a national overrun and went with repeats of Bull (0.9), NCIS: Los Angeles (0.8) and MacGyver (0.7).

NBC's Sunday Night Football had a very low-5 prelim, its second-lowest of the season, but it may get a bit more finals help with a West Coast team playing in the game.

ABC was the only big four network with original scripted programming on Friday, as comedies Last Man Standing (1.1) and Dr. Ken (0.9) returned at pretty normal levels. ABC rounded out the night with an average Shark Tank (1.2) and a well-above average night from 20/20 (1.1).

Fox took a rare Friday victory thanks to the Pac-12 Championship Game (1.6/1.7), with a preliminary 1.1 for the pre-game show in the 8:00 hour. The game had a 1.9 when it was last on Fox Friday two years ago.

At least in the prelims, the CW had an above-average Friday with The Vampire Diaries (0.4) on the uptick and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend hoping to hang onto its first 0.3 of the season.

CBS had its annual hour of colorized I Love Lucy episodes (0.9), down two tenths from last year's special on December 23, leading into repeats of the veteran crime dramas (0.6/0.7).

And NBC had high-end results for Caught on Camera (0.7) and Dateline (1.1/1.2).

FINALS UPDATE:Thursday Night Football (6.8) and Legends of Tomorrow (1.2) adjusted up while The Great American Baking Show (1.0) and The Great Indoors (1.3) and Thursday Night Football Pregame (2.7) and Supernatural (0.6) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC began its Thursday dramas' hiatus with the return of The Great American Baking Show (1.1/1.0), which was called The Great Holiday Baking Show in its late fall run last year. It was down a bit from last year's 1.2 premiere. It led out of A Charlie Brown Christmas (1.5), which had a rather soft first showing of the year (down big from last year's 2.0 on a Monday).

NBC took its second crack at Thursday Night Football to hugely improved results, with the ratings magnet Dallas Cowboys vaulting the game to an upper-4's prelim. After finals and the NFL Network simulcast are included, this will likely be the season's biggest TNF game, and maybe even pretty close to last week's Thanksgiving primetime game.

That may have contributed to a rather soft comedy night on CBS. The Big Bang Theory (3.1) and The Great Indoors (1.4) both matched two weeks ago, but Mom (1.3) and Life in Pieces (1.2) were both weaker. Pure Genius rounded it out with a 0.8, unable to bounce back from its Thanksgiving rating.

The CW wrapped up the four-night crossover with Legends of Tomorrow (1.1). It fell from the last couple nights but nearly doubled its usual rating and (like The Flash and Arrow) set a new series high in A18-49+. Supernatural (0.7) was pretty normal at 9/8c.

And after getting hugely inflated ratings for Thanksgiving repeats, Rosewood (0.7) and Pitch (0.7) were back to their normal original numbers this week. It was the last 2016 episode for Rosewood, which will move to Friday after the new year.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Wednesday saw the return of History's resilient Vikings with a 0.71 demo rating. It's technically the second half of season four, but the year-to-year comparisons will be against the first half of season four since it was almost a full year ago (premiering on February 18). By that measure, it's down a relatively decent 13%.

Finished with its Wednesday original series for 2016, NBC went with annual special Christmas in Rockefeller Center (1.7) and the two-hour movie Christmas of Many Colors (1.8/1.7), a second installment after last year's Dolly Parton movie Coat of Many Colors. The movie was basically even with last year, which averaged a 1.8 on a Thursday, while Rockefeller got a nice bump from last year's 1.5.

These holiday specials are usually bad news for the ABC Wednesday lineup, and it was clear at least in the 8:00 hour as The Goldbergs (1.7) and Speechless (1.5) each took a hit. But the network held up much better in the hours against the Parton movie; Modern Family (2.2) was even, while Black-ish (1.8) actually had a really good night, and Designated Survivor (1.3) inched up as well.

The four-superhero show crossover continued to do absolute wonders for the CW, as night three saw Arrow (1.3) basically double its usual delivery this season. Like The Flash on Tuesday, this will go down as Arrow's biggest episode ever in A18-49+, and was within a tenth of the raw series high. But those super-charged lead-ins have been wasted on the network's flop newbies; Frequency was stuck at 0.3 again.

On Fox, Lethal Weapon (1.6) and Empire (2.8) were back from yet another Wednesday interruption at preliminary new lows; however, both did a tenth better at the bottom of the hour and could be close to adjusting up.

And CBS had Survivor (1.9), Criminal Minds (1.4) and Code Black (1.0), which were similar or slightly better than the lineup's last full-strength outing two weeks ago.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:American Housewife (1.5) and Fresh Off the Boat (1.3) adjusted up while No Tomorrow (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

On another night without CBS originals, the NBC dramas took major advantage. The massive This Is Us (2.7) popped to within a tenth of its series high, and up three tenths from last Tuesday. And Chicago Fire (1.7) found some heat of its own in the 10/9c hour, up by two tenths. (Not surprisingly, they bounced even more in total viewers, where both shows appear headed for new season highs.) Even slumping The Voice (1.9) had a minor uptick, but remains an eyesore on a year-to-year basis.

On ABC, it was another sorta mediocre night for American Housewife (1.4), as it will once again need a finals uptick to dodge a new low. The Middle led off with another 1.6, while 9/8c comedies Fresh Off the Boat (1.2) and The Real O'Neals (1.0) were both back from a week off and inched down. After over a month off, ABC's Agents of SHIELD returned to the 10/9c hour with its usual 0.8.

The CW had another night of crossover glory, as The Flash (1.5) exploded to a new season high. This will likely go down as Flash's biggest historical-adjusted episode ever, which is quite a highlight in a season that has largely underwhelmed. Flash even managed to (preliminarily) drag No Tomorrow (0.4) up by a tenth at 9:00.

CBS was in repeats but far from forgotten, as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (2.3) had its annual potent outing in the 8:00 hour. After a somewhat large drop last year, this year Rudolph was within a tenth of steady. It helped boost repeats of NCIS (1.3) and Bull (0.9) later in the night.

And Fox had little recovery from its rotten outing last Tuesday; only Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.0) picked up a tenth, while New Girl (0.8) and Scream Queens (0.5) were stuck at last week's lows.

FINALS UPDATE:NFL Overrun (6.5) and 60 Minutes (2.8) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.5) and Madam Secretary (1.0) and Sunday Night Football (6.2) and Son of Zorn (R) (0.7) adjusted up while Football Night in America (2.5) and Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (0.8) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC's drama lineup was back with a minor uptick for Once Upon a Time (1.0), then even Secrets and Lies (0.7) (which will wrap up with two hours next week) and the 2016 finale of Quantico (0.7) (which was recently granted a Monday stint after The Bachelor in 2017).

CBS is pending NFL overrun-muddled results for 60 Minutes (2.3 from 8:00-9:00), NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4 from 9:00-10:00) and Madam Secretary (0.9 from 10:00-11:00). These shows all started 11 minutes before the hour in the East/Central (plus Elementary at 10:49 ET), which means they could be adjusting up in finals.

Without a national NFL overrun, Fox mostly went into repeats (as CBS will do next week). A 7:30 edition of Bob's Burgers (1.1) was the only original, leading out of a combination of local NFL overruns plus holiday special Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (1.0). The 8:00-10:00 lineup (1.1/0.6/0.8/0.5) was all repeats.

And NBC's Sunday Night Football, featuring Kansas City and Denver, had a high-5's prelim.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Sunday Night Football (6.9) and Pitch (R) (1.1) adjusted up while The Great Indoors (1.1) and Football Night in America (4.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

On Thanksgiving night, CBS was again the only network with original series programming. The Big Bang Theory (1.4) was the only repeat, leading into The Great Indoors (1.2), Mom (1.2), Life in Pieces (1.0) and Pure Genius (0.8). The younger-skewing Life in Pieces took a sizable hit, but everything else was only down in the 10-15% area.

NBC had its usual Thanksgiving primetime football game, but with a 6.0ish prelim, Steelers/Colts looks like it will decline significantly from last year's evening game (which averaged a 9.0 final).

Fox had a presumably massive late afternoon NFL game, boosting repeats of Rosewood (2.2) and Pitch (1.0). These numbers are ridiculous enough (including a 2.8 at 8:00) that I'm assuming the postgame show bled into the 8:00 hour a bit, but maybe somebody can clarify.

ABC went with a two-hour Wonderful World of Disney special (1.0) and comedy repeats (0.6/0.5). The CW had a four-pack of Whose Line Is It Anyway? repeats (0.3/0.3/0.3/0.3).

Once a battleground for original programming despite the depressed overall viewing, this Thanksgiving Eve saw only one network in the original series game: CBS, with a two-hour Survivor (1.5) and Code Black (0.9). Survivor took a three-tenths hit from last week, which is about the norm from recent Thanksgiving Eve telecasts, while Code Black stayed at typical levels.

But CBS was not without competition, as some holiday specials proved potent. ABC's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1.9) impressed in the 8:00 hour, leading into repeats of Modern Family (1.3) and Black-ish (1.1) and a Designated Survivor-themed edition of 20/20 (0.9).

NBC had a Macy's parade special at 8/7c (0.9) and then won the last two hours of the night with a two-hour Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving special (1.6/1.5) which did much better than last year (1.1).

Bringing up the rear was Fox with repeats of Lethal Weapon (0.8) and Empire (0.7), and the CW with a two-hour Hollywood Walk of Fame special (0.3/0.2).

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

For most networks, it was the last night of original entertainment programming before a long holiday weekend. ABC had rather soft interest in the two-hour season finale of Dancing with the Stars (1.7/1.8), which didn't bump up at all from the Monday performance finale and went well below the 2.4 ender from last fall. And if there was any hope that DWTS pre-tune would help the Tuesday 8:00 comedies, that didn't really materialize (except maybe in total viewers). In the demo, The Middle (1.6) was even and American Housewife (1.4) actually fell to a new low.

DWTS didn't exactly devastate the 9:00 to 11:00 competition either, but may have held it back a bit. On CBS, Bull (1.5) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.2) matched last week, but their lead-in NCIS (1.9) had its best outing in well over a month.

NBC's This Is Us (2.4) was down a bit, but it had an even bigger build relative to The Voice, which plummeted to a 1.8. Chicago Fire held at 1.5.

Fox headed into the holidays on a rough note with new lows for both New Girl (0.8) and Scream Queens (0.5). Leading off was Brooklyn Nine-Nine with its fourth straight 0.9.

And the CW's The Flash inched down to 1.1, leading into No Tomorrow (0.3).

News events caused USA Network to bump its Ryan Philippe drama Shooter to the fall, and it opened last Tuesday with a 0.50 demo rating. This is a better raw rating than the last two dramas to launch after the WWE SmackDown franchise: Colony in January (0.44) and Queen of the South in June (0.45). However, SmackDown (which recently relocated to Tuesday) was also a lot stronger itself... it averaged a 0.96 leading into Shooter after getting roughly a 0.7 for those other two launches. So it may be a little premature to say that Shooter did way better. However, it did seem like a pretty good demographic fit with the wrestling, skewing sharply male at 59%.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Kevin Can Wait (1.5) preliminarily ticked down for the second straight week on CBS, but it was a decent night for the rest of the comedy lineup; Man with a Plan (1.3) was even, while 2 Broke Girls (1.4) and The Odd Couple (1.1) both ticked up. Scorpion hung another 1.2 at 10/9c.

ABC had only a minimal uptick for the performance finale of Dancing with the Stars (1.8), though it was still even-ish in Plus with last year's performance finale (2.1). Conviction had another 0.8 at 10/9c.

On NBC, the late-season slump continued for The Voice (2.1/2.0), which will hope to benefit from DWTS' absence in the coming weeks. Timeless clung to 1.2 in the prelims at 10/9c.

Fox's Gotham (1.1) and Lucifer (1.0) both inched down.

And the CW's Supergirl (1.0) and Jane the Virgin (0.6) should be adjusted due to Monday Night Football preemptions.

FINALS UPDATE:NFL Overrun (5.7) and Sunday Night Football (6.2) and Bob's Burgers (1.1) and Family Guy (1.4) adjusted up while 60 Minutes (2.6) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.5) and Elementary (0.7) and Football Night in America (2.7) and The Simpsons (R) (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC mercifully took a break from airing its drama Sunday lineup, but the bad news kept flowing with a significant year-to-year decline for the American Music Awards (2.4). The Awards may have helped lift America's Funniest Home Videos (1.1), which hit a prelim season high and matched the year-ago evening.

Fox had a low-end The Simpsons (1.3) but a pretty typical non-overrun evening at 9/8c with Family Guy (1.3) and The Last Man on Earth (0.9). However, the network's most notable point may have come at 8:30, where Bob's Burgers (1.2) filled in and significantly outperformed the recent non-overrun episodes of Son of Zorn. (Bob's also had a 1.0 for a 7:30 original.)

CBS (5.1/4.0/2.3/1.9/1.4/1.2/0.9/0.8) had the national NFL overrun, starting its regular programs at 46 minutes after the hour. Looking at just the halfs that are exclusively dedicated to one program, you would get 60 Minutes (2.3), NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4) and Madam Secretary (0.9), but we'll see how it looks after finals.

After a spike last week, Sunday Night Football was back to fairly normal with a mid-5's prelim that should adjust up to somewhere in the low-to-mid-6's.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Here's a quick catch-up on War of 18-49 pages for some 2016 cable
shows that got left behind in the last few months. Just doing shows that
have already existing War pages, though I may be adding some more War posts for cable series in the near future. Click the names in each one of these
tables to see the now-updated War of 18-49 page.

This
is hitting a lot of material that is over a year old, because many of
these shows were only part-way through a split season as of the last
time I did cable War updates. I'm including the new split-season halves on these updates, but still not doing grades yet for the material that is technically an incomplete season.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

CBS' veterans Hawaii Five-0 (1.3) and Blue Bloods (1.2) each gave back part of their spikes, while MacGyver clung to 1.1 for the fifth time in the last six episodes. CBS Friday has aired in its entirety every single week of the season to date, but the streak will end with Black Friday next week.

On ABC, Last Man Standing was preliminarily back down to its usual 1.1, while Dr. Ken held the 0.9 and Shark Tank stayed at 1.2. 20/20 (0.7) gave back all of its big post-election bounce from last week.

In the Fox prelims, The Exorcist (0.7) took a tenth away from lead-in Hell's Kitchen (1.0).

NBC's lineup of Caught on Camera (0.7) and Dateline (1.0/1.1) was up a bit.

And The Vampire Diaries edged down to 0.3 for the CW, leading into another 0.2 from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Friday, November 18, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Grey's Anatomy (2.2) and Thursday Night Football Pregame (2.2) and Thursday Night Football (4.2) adjusted up while The Great Indoors (1.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC sent its Thursday bookend dramas Grey's Anatomy (2.1) and How to Get Away with Murder (1.4) off to holiday hiatus with two-tenth upticks. For Grey's, it was really just getting back to a normal rating after last week's drop, but Murder actually made it all the way back to its season high from the premiere in September. Next time we see these shows, they'll again be a part of the official 'TGIT' branding, with Scandal in the middle instead of Notorious (0.9).

After a solid week three, the CBS comedies turned back downward this time, especially The Big Bang Theory (3.1) and The Great Indoors (1.5) in the 8:00 hour. Mom (1.4) and Life in Pieces (1.4) each shed a tenth in the 9:00 hour, while Pure Genius continued to hold onto a 0.9 at 10:00. As has been tradition in the Thursday Night Football era, all these shows (except for Big Bang) will have to endure an original Thanksgiving telecast next week, and CBS doesn't have the late afternoon game this time.

NBC had a fairly modest result in its first ever game under the Thursday Night Football banner, with a high-2's prelim that will likely translate to somewhere in the low-4's after finals (when the NFL Network simulcast is included).

Fox's drama duo of Rosewood (0.7) and Pitch (0.7) stayed stuck at last week's lows. And the CW's Supernatural inched back up to 0.7, leading out of yet another 0.6 from Legends of Tomorrow.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

ABC's The Goldbergs (1.8) gave back last week's spike, and its lead-outs Speechless (1.6) and Modern Family (2.2) also inched down. However, Black-ish (1.6) picked up a tenth, and Designated Survivor (1.2) was even again at 10/9c.

On CBS, Criminal Minds (1.4) got back a tenth after last week's stinker, but Survivor (1.8) lost the same. Code Black (0.9) stayed fractional at 10/9c.

Fox had an up-and-down night of its own, with Empire (3.1) moving back into the threes but Lethal Weapon (1.7) dropping a tenth.

NBC's Blindspot desperately needed an uptick after last week's low, and it at least got a small one with a 1.1. But a two-hour Chicago PD (1.2) dipped, as it hit just a 1.1 in the out-of-timeslot 9:00 hour before growing to its normal 1.3 at 10/9c.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

It was the first 'normal' Tuesday in about a month, and a lot of shows were able to take advantage. ABC's comedies The Middle (1.6), American Housewife (1.6), Fresh Off the Boat (1.3) and The Real O'Neals (1.1) were all on the upswing, and most of them by multiple tenths compared with two weeks ago. ABC also had huge improvement in the 10/9c hour as another of its David Blaine specials (1.6) allowed the network to keep Agents of SHIELD on hiatus for another couple weeks.

NBC's huge This Is Us (2.6) also had a nice leap, beating its last couple episodes and building big on its lead-in from The Voice (2.1). But Chicago Fire stayed at a low-end 1.5, perhaps suffering from the David Blaine competition.

There was also good news on the CW, where The Flash (1.2) roared back after managing only a 1.0 in its last several outings. But that was of absolutely no help to No Tomorrow (0.3) at 9/8c, whose breakdown (0.3 -> 0.2) reveals it is actually closer to 0.25 than 0.35...

The 'worst' performances of the night were still basically steady with their last originals; that included CBS' NCIS (1.7), Bull (1.5) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.2). And Fox was back to Tuesday reality after a very lengthy hiatus with Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9), New Girl (0.9) and Scream Queens (0.6).

The fourth week for the CBS comedy lineup saw several downticks. Kevin Can Wait (1.6) still looks good in the lead-off spot, but Man with a Plan (1.3) was just OK again at 8:30, and 2 Broke Girls (1.2) had a particular stinker at 9/8c. The CBS trends improved in the second half of the night as The Odd Couple (1.0) was even and Scorpion (1.2) picked up a tenth.

ABC had a bit of an upswing with Dancing with the Stars (1.7/1.6) and Conviction (0.8), which rebounded to normal after a horrible result last week.

On Fox, Gotham (1.2) and Lucifer (1.1) both had pretty good nights, with Lucifer growing for the second straight week since its Halloween low point.

NBC's The Voice (2.3) and Timeless (1.2), along with the CW's Supergirl (0.8) and Jane the Virgin (0.5) are mostly eyeing slight growth, but may be nicked by Monday Night Football preemptions in finals.

CBS' 60 Minutes (3.2) got a big ratings pop with the first major interview with the new president-elect. This includes some local NFL overruns in some rather sizable markets, so it could come down some, but it still has a shot at a season high (beating a bunch of episodes that had national NFL support). Again, wait for finals, but that 60 Minutes bounce appears to have helped NCIS: Los Angeles (1.9), but not done much for Madam Secretary (1.1) and Elementary (0.7).

On ABC, the end-of-DST bounce evaporated for America's Funniest Home Videos (0.8) and Once Upon a Time (0.9), which may have been undone by a much stronger NFL week. But Secrets and Lies (0.7) and Quantico (0.7) came at least a touch off of the ledge.

Fox had a huge national NFL overrun from Cowboys/Steelers, and its comedy lineup of The Simpsons (3.1), Son of Zorn (1.6), Family Guy (1.6) and The Last Man on Earth (1.1) looked pretty similar to the last time the network had a national overrun back on October 16 (when Simpsons had a Treehouse of Horror episode).

On the first Sunday after the election, there were some positive signs for the NFL, which also had excellent matchups for both the Fox late afternoon game (preliminary 8.1 at 7:00) as well as NBC's Sunday Night Football. The mid-6 prelim for SNF was the franchise's best preliminary rating since September.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Here's a quick catch-up on War of 18-49 pages for some summer shows that got left behind in the early fall rush. Just doing shows that have already existing War pages. Another version of this for cable is coming soon! Click the names in each one of these tables to see the now-updated War of 18-49 page.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

It was a big week for CBS' Friday veteran crime dramas, with Hawaii Five-0 (1.4) and Blue Bloods (1.3) each up by two tenths to tie their season highs and rank as Friday's top two programs. (Five-0's previous 1.4 came with over a half point more of lead-in support than what MacGyver did last night (1.1).) That means Five-0 has now picked up by 0.4 in two weeks since a 1.0 against the World Series.

ABC also had some good news as Dr. Ken slid back up to 0.9, and 20/20 (1.1) finally showed some real life at 10/9c. Anchors Last Man Standing (1.1) and Shark Tank (1.2) had their usual numbers.

Friday, November 11, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Life in Pieces (1.5) adjusted up while Superstore (1.2) and Superstore (1.3) and Chicago Med (1.4) and The Blacklist (1.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

Thursday was the third and final showdown between CBS and NBC originals this fall, as NBC's half of the Thursday Night Football package begins next week. We'll have to wait for finals on NBC's double-length Superstore (1.3/1.4), Chicago Med (1.5) and The Blacklist (1.4), as they are likely pending downgrades due to preemptions in the local TNF markets.

On CBS, meanwhile, it was a bounce-back Thursday for The Big Bang Theory (3.4), and that resonated to some degree later in the night as The Great Indoors (1.7), Mom (1.5) and Life in Pieces (1.4) were all on the upswing. It was a new worst-ever retention for Indoors, and it won't get any better after finals, but a moderately encouraging point for Mom after two weak efforts to start the season. At 10/9c, Pure Genius at least kept itself alive in the short term by staying at 0.9.

ABC had kind of a weird night as Grey's Anatomy (1.9) was surprisingly down on the first Thursday with no DST, but Notorious (0.9) was up and How to Get Away with Murder (1.2) held on.

Maybe the World Series actually did help Pitch, which crashed to a 0.7 this week. It led out of a low-end effort from Rosewood (0.7).

And on the CW, Legends of Tomorrow clung to a 0.6 but Supernatural (0.6) inched down.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Most Wednesday entertainment programs were back from the first time in two weeks. ABC started with a nice bounce as viewing levels were likely higher for The Goldbergs (2.0) at 8/7c, while Speechless (1.7) and Modern Family (2.3) were even. But Black-ish (1.6) inched down, and Designated Survivor (1.2) was unable to mount any kind of rally from its big dip against the World Series last time.

America did not seem to be in much of a mood for dark crime dramas on the day after the election, with schizophrenic Criminal Minds (1.3) falling all the way to a new low and looking a lot more like the show that had a 1.4 stinker back in week two. Leading out was Code Black (0.9), which had its first fractional result with an original Minds lead-in (though it was still up from last week against the World Series). CBS' star was clearly Survivor (1.9), which bounced all the way back from a dip against the biggest Series game last week.

And the NBC dramas also had a tough time, with new season lows for Blindspot (1.0) and Law and Order: SVU (1.3), while Chicago PD (1.3) tied its low from two weeks ago.

Fox was returning from an even longer hiatus; it had to sit out the last two World Series weeks, and Empire even missed the week before that due to a debate. So Empire (2.9) took a pretty sizble crash at 9/8c, but Lethal Weapon (1.8) had a rather robust return anyway at 8/7c.

Arrow inched back up to 0.7 for the CW, leading into another 0.3 from Frequency.

The broadcast networks stepped aside for the latest in a long list of major 2016 primetime interruptions: coverage of Election Day. In the prelims, NBC (4.0/4.6/4.6) was in the lead, followed by ABC (2.6/3.0/3.2), CBS (2.4/2.7/2.7) and Fox (1.4/1.7/1.8).

The CW didn't have election coverage (at least on a national basis) but also sat out for the night, airing repeats of The Flash (0.4) and No Tomorrow (0.2).

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

The end of DST plus the fact that last week was Halloween caused a rather ridiculous upswing in overall viewing on Monday, pretty much throughout the first two hours but especially at 8:00 (which was up over 20%, from 24.5 to 30.1). That resulted in a slew of broadcast increases in those early hours.

Most drastic was CBS' Kevin Can Wait (1.7), using an added assist from an Adam Sandler guest spot to zoom all the way back to its timeslot premiere rating from two weeks ago. Man with a Plan (0.1), 2 Broke Girls (1.4) and The Odd Couple (1.0) each packed on a tenth, but that meant MwaP looked a bit weaker by comparison with its Kevin lead-in.

The Voice (2.3) also had a significant increase, but is predictably finding it very difficult to sustain last year's hot pace from the late fall. It led into big ratings for a Saturday Night Live election special (2.1) at 10/9c, nearly doubling the week-ago Timeless.

Fox's Gotham (1.2) and Lucifer (1.0) as well as the CW's Supergirl (0.7) were also on the post-Halloween upswing.

FINALS UPDATE:60 Minutes (2.4) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4) and Madam Secretary (1.0) and Sunday Night Football (6.6) adjusted up while Football Night in America (2.9) and Son of Zorn (R) (0.6) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

The end of Daylight Saving Time as well as the end of the World Series were good news for ABC's first two hours, as America's Funniest Home Videos (1.0) and Once Upon a Time (1.1) both had two-tenth upswings. But that made for an even more bitter pill to swallow for Secrets and Lies (0.6) and Quantico (0.6), which couldn't bounce back at all.

CBS used the national NFL overrun on 60 Minutes (2.1 from 8:00-9:00), NCIS: Los Angeles (1.3 from 9:00-10:00) and Madam Secretary (0.9 and 10:00-11:00), plus a rough 10:50 start time for Elementary. Some of these shows should be able to adjust up in finals since each of their first ten minutes were chopped off in these preliminary half hour-based numbers.

On Fox, Family Guy (1.2) and The Last Man on Earth (0.9) tied their last results (two weeks ago against The Walking Dead's premiere). It seems there was less local NFL overrun help, as there was some slippage earlier in the evening from Bob's Burgers (1.0), The Simpsons (1.4) and Son of Zorn (0.9).

NBC had a mid-5's prelim for Sunday Night Football, which will probably end up a few tenths below last week's final 6.5.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Friday was the first chance for primetime lineups to come back into action after either facing or being preempted for the World Series last week. That was most felt on CBS, where MacGyver (1.1) and Hawaii Five-0 (1.2) instantly reclaimed the two tenths they lost against the Series. However, Blue Bloods was stuck at another 1.1 at 10/9c.

On ABC, the returns of comedies Last Man Standing (1.1) and Dr. Ken (0.8) were both even with two weeks ago. At 9/8c, Shark Tank couldn't pick back up to its pre-Series level, staying at its disappointing 1.1 from the opening weeks of the season (as well as last week against the Series). 20/20 inched up to 0.8.

Fox's Hell's Kitchen (1.1) and The Exorcist (0.7), as well as the CW's The Vampire Diaries (0.4) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (0.2), all matched their results from the last pre-Series Friday two weeks ago. NBC also had a typical phone-it-in night with Caught on Camera (0.6) and Dateline (0.9/1.0).

Friday, November 4, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:How to Get Away with Murder (1.2) and The Big Bang Theory (3.1) adjusted up while The Great Indoors (1.6) and Superstore (1.1) and The Good Place (1.2) and Chicago Med (1.3) and The Blacklist (1.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

The new CBS Thursday lineup trickled downward in week two, starting with The Big Bang Theory (3.0) dropping a few tenths. The Great Indoors (1.7) had an OK hold at 8:30, shedding just two tenths, while Mom (1.3) remained surprisingly modest in the early going with its own two-tenth drop post-premiere. Life in Pieces (1.3) remained the overachiever with another strong hold at 9:30, and Pure Genius (0.9) shed a tenth in its second week.

On Fox, Pitch inched up to 0.9 following two nights of enormous baseball on the network, while Rosewood (bound for Friday this winter) had its usual 0.8 again.

ABC's staples Grey's Anatomy (2.1) and How to Get Away with Murder (1.1) each inched down in the prelims, surrounding a steady but low Notorious (0.8).

NBC's lineup of Superstore (1.2), The Good Place (1.4), Chicago Med (1.6) and The Blacklist (1.3) are all pending preemptions in the Thursday Night Football markets. It seems fairly clear that Superstore didn't sustain last week's big surge to 1.3, but it also may drop the least of any of these shows in finals since the game didn't start till nearly 8:30.

On the CW, Supernatural ticked up to 0.7, leading out of another 0.6 from Legends of Tomorrow.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Survivor (1.6) and World Series (12.6) adjusted up while Criminal Minds (R) (0.8) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

Thanks to an extra inning and a rain delay, it took until deep into primetime on the West Coast, but a 108-year curse finally ended for the Chicago Cubs, and a lot of people were watching. In the prelims, Game 7 of the World Series averaged almost 40 million viewers and just over a 12 demo rating, nearly doubling the previous high of this Series. It will certainly be the biggest rating for a baseball game since Game 7 of the 2001 World Series (which had a 14.6), and the first time the sport has even cracked double digits since 2004. The previous high for this decade was a 7.4!

ABC was forced to counter with its own big event, and still got roughly a 3.0 demo out of the CMA Awards. That was down about 20% from last year.

CBS was the only other big four network with original material, seeing about a 20% hit to Survivor (1.5) at 8/7c and a three-tenth drop for Code Black (0.7), which was also saddled with a repeat lead-in from Criminal Minds (0.9). NBC went with crime drama repeats (0.6/0.8/0.7).

On the CW, Arrow (0.6) and Frequency (0.3) stayed original and managed to cling to low-end numbers.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Fresh Off the Boat (1.1) and Chicago Fire (1.5) and World Series (6.6) and The Flash (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

Fox's dream World Series raged on with another huge rating for Game 6, plus a result that ensured an enormous seventh and final game tonight.With a preliminary low-6 rating, it looks like it went at least 10% ahead of the opener which was in the mix last Tuesday, but perhaps not beat out the Series high 6.7 from Sunday. It'll destroy the last couple historical Game 6 ratings (a 5.7 in 2013 and a measly 3.5 in 2014), and may match or slightly edge the 6.5 Game 6 from 2011.

More World Series meant still more declines for broadcast entertainment programs. ABC was a mixed bag, with the 8:00 hour of The Middle (1.4) and American Housewife (1.5) each down just a tenth, Fresh Off the Boat (1.0) and The Real O'Neals (0.8) down a very unwelcome two-tenths, and Agents of SHIELD (0.8) steady.

On NBC, This Is Us (2.3) shed just a tenth, which is pretty strong considering the added difficulty of The Voice (1.4) going into recap show mode in the 8:00 hour. Chicago Fire (1.4) was preliminarily down two tenths at 10/9c.

The CW's The Flash (0.9) is eyeing a new series low, but will hope to get out of fraction-town after finals (which may be possible with a 1.0/0.9 half-hour breakdown). No Tomorrow had 0.3 again.

And CBS ducked the Series by adding last-minute repeats of NCIS (1.1), Bull (1.0) and NCIS: New Orleans (0.9). They'll do the same with Criminal Minds against tonight's Game 7.

Week two of The Walking Dead brought a 27% week-to-week drop, but the resulting 6.09 demo was only about a single tenth behind the year-ago week two. Sustaining that stratospheric level from the cliffhanger-inflated premiere was probably never gonna happen, but it would go down as a huge win if all this can ultimately keep the show within a league average drop. So week two looks positive in that sense, especially since it had World Series competition as well. (The aftershow Talking Dead plummeted even harder, down 45% to a 2.03 in week two.)

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Gotham (1.0) adjusted up while Kevin Can Wait (1.3) and Man with a Plan (1.3) and 2 Broke Girls (1.3) and The Odd Couple (0.9) and Scorpion (1.1) adjusted down.

For the CBS comedy night, this means a pretty huge drop for Kevin Can Wait at 8/7c, but a decent enough hold from week two of Man with a Plan (causing Renewology to warm up a bit, even on a down night). 2 Broke Girls was down 0.1 (OK) and The Odd Couple down 0.2 (not great) from last week.

WHAT MATTERS:

Halloween brought another slew of broadcast drops, and it'll be tough to know exactly what they mean until seeing the week-to-week change in overall viewing (as well as sorting out MNF preemptions). It was week two for the new CBS comedy lineup of Kevin Can Wait (1.4), Man with a Plan (1.5), 2 Broke Girls (1.5) and The Odd Couple (1.2), with Scorpion (1.4) rounding out the night. Stay tuned, as the network had at least one football preemption.

NBC's The Voice (1.9/2.0) and Timeless (1.1) had a particularly rough night in the prelims, with Voice shedding about 25% week-to-week.

Dancing with the Stars (1.4/1.5) took a more modest decline, but the network got little at 10/9c out of its annual CMA Awards preview special (0.7).

Fox's Gotham (0.9) and Lucifer (0.9) both dipped into fractional territory for the first time.

And Supergirl (0.6) was nicked again at 8/7c, leading into increasingly resilient Jane the Virgin (0.4) at 9/8c.

It's time for another edition of Renewology Swings of the Week. These numbers cover Week 6 of the 2016-17 season (October 24 thru October 30). This week, I'll also take a look at what I did to "fix" the major R% problem with CBS comedies.

FINALS UPDATE:Sunday Night Football (6.5) and World Series (6.7) adjusted up while 60 Minutes (1.2) and Football Night in America (2.9) and NFL Overrun (7.3) and The OT (4.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

Sports took center stage on Sunday, with another point of massive year-to-year growth for Game 5 of the World Series. It had a low-6's prelim, easily the highest of the series to date and well above the clincher on this night last year (which had a 4.8 prelim and 5.1 final). It was also a fantastic game result for Fox, which now gets at least one more game on Tuesday.

And NBC's Sunday Night Football, featuring the always ratings-reliable Dallas Cowboys, had a 6.0ish prelim, its highest in a month even with that competition.

The entertainment options got left far behind once again. On a week-to-week basis, it was actually a worse week for CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles (1.2), Madam Secretary (0.8) and Elementary (0.6), with LA and Madam each going multiple tenths behind their previous season lows. But even 'just' one-tenth drops were very unwelcome news for ABC's Once Upon a Time (0.9), Secrets and Lies (0.6) and Quantico (0.6).

Monday, October 31, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:World Series (5.2) adjusted up while MacGyver (0.9) and The Vampire Diaries (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

The World Series began its weekend run on Fox with a huge high-4's prelim on Friday night. This will likely be in the vicinity of +50% from the year-ago Game 3, which was a 3.1 prelim that adjusted up to a 3.2 final.

The only big four scripted lineup that went up against the Series was CBS' trio of dramas, resulting in a relatively soft night for MacGyver (1.0), Hawaii Five-0 (1.0) and Blue Bloods (1.1).

On ABC, the comedies sat out in favor of the network's second run of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1.0), while usual originals Shark Tank (1.1) and 20/20 (0.7) were on the soft side as well.

NBC was a little below usual as well, with Caught on Camera (0.6) and Dateline (0.8/0.9).

And the CW's The Vampire Diaries (0.4) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (0.2) matched last week's premieres. CEG was down around 10% from last week's preliminary total viewers, so it may be close to a 0.1 again.

Friday, October 28, 2016

RENEWOLOGY: Please note that I've rerun Renewology for this week with the CBS
comedy effect removed. Everything on the network has been updated here.

The
comedy effect is going to be back, but hopefully we will have better
info when it returns. Any further beefs beyond this point are probably
more about the True formula, rather than the targets.

FINALS UPDATE:

CBS' 8:30 to 10:00 comedies came down by 0.1 each, leaving The Great Indoors at 1.9, Mom at 1.5 and Life in Pieces at 1.4, while Pure Genius went down 0.2 to a near-DOA 1.0.

Renewology is really down on all of the CBS premieres from last night, making Great Indoors (25%) and Pure Genius (18%) big long-shots and putting even returnees Mom (31%) and Life in Pieces (42%) below the bubble. A big part of this is in the category adjustment, which probably hurts these shows too much for being CBS comedies. I'll talk some more about this next week. For now, it is probably best to look at the CBS comedies on a relative basis, rather than the absolute R%. In this sense, Great Indoors started just a bit behind Man with a Plan (28%), while Mom and LiP are ahead of both of the newbies (as well as fellow returnee The Odd Couple).

Elsewhere, NBC's The Good Place (1.2) and Chicago Med (1.5) adjusted up, marking a new season high for Med.

WHAT MATTERS:

CBS' fall rollout finally concluded with the premiere of its new Thursday lineup: The Big Bang Theory (3.4), newbie The Great Indoors (2.0), returning comedies Mom (1.6) and Life in Pieces (1.5), and new drama Pure Genius (1.2). How they actually did is still not at all clear because the network was preempted in the local Thursday Night Football markets (as TNF begins a three-week run of airing nationally only on NFL Network). My only observation that seems probable to hold up in finals is surprisingly solid retention for Life in Pieces at 9:30...

CBS' return didn't cause much of a stir on the other broadcasters, in part because they were so beaten down last time out. In fact, NBC was actually on the rebound from its truly rotten week-ago results, including a surprising surge for Superstore (1.3) in its first head-to-head with a TBBT original. The Good Place (1.1), Chicago Med (1.4) and The Blacklist (1.2) were also on the upswing. Med would actually tie its timeslot high with this number.

On Fox, Pitch (0.8) couldn't get anything going despite coming off of two days of World Series promotion (including a special encore on FS1 following the Game 1 postgame show). It led out of another 0.8 from Rosewood.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy (2.2) took a tenth away from Notorious (0.8), while How to Get Away with Murder (1.2) was even at 10/9c.

On the CW, Legends of Tomorrow (0.6) lost the tenth it got in a finals adjustment last week, while Supernatural stayed at 0.6.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:The Goldbergs (1.8) and Speechless (1.7) and Modern Family (2.3) and Survivor (1.9) and Law and Order: SVU (1.5) adjusted up while Designated Survivor (1.2) and World Series (4.8) adjusted down.

Thanks to the World Series downtick (presumably due to the earlier material in the 7:00 hour), Game 2 ended up with almost exactly the same year-to-year trend as Game 1, which is still really good.

WHAT MATTERS:

Despite the earlier start time, Game 2 of the World Series ran all the way through primetime on the East Coast, and early numbers (4.9) have it up even more sharply than Game 1, compared to the year-ago ratings. (Game 2 in 2015 had a 3.6 prelim and 3.9 final.)

It was another largely down night for the entertainment world, which had the double-whammy of coming back from a week off for a presidential debate last Wednesday. ABC had the softest night, and is in the particularly unenviable position of facing another preemption due to the CMA Awards next week. Designated Survivor (1.3) took a major step down at 10/9c, merely tying Chicago PD (1.3) for the hourly lead, and the comedies The Goldbergs (1.7), Speechless (1.6), Modern Family (2.2) and Black-ish (1.7) were all down as well (most of them by two tenths).

The only big four show to avoid any kind of downtick was NBC's Law and Order: SVU (1.4), while its surrounding programs PD (1.3) and Blindspot (1.1) both inched down. CBS had minor slippage across the board with Survivor (1.8), Criminal Minds (1.6) and Code Black (1.0).

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:American Housewife (1.6) and World Series (5.6) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

Fox happily took a break from its usual Tuesday lineup to air a very strong Game 1 of the World Series, which averaged a 5.4 prelim and may adjust up a bit more after finals. That was almost 20% above last year's Game 1 prelim, and it's gonna be the first time that Game 1 of a Series broke a 5 rating since 2009 (and just the third time since 2004). Due to weather concerns, tonight's Game 2 will be starting an hour earlier (and could conceivably be done by the start of the 10/9c hour on the East Coast).

Against this competition, there was some downward momentum on the other networks, but nothing too catastrophic. On ABC, comedy newbie American Housewife (1.5) took another dip in week three, this time only matching its The Middle (1.5) lead-in in the prelims. Fresh Off the Boat (1.2) also inched down, but The Real O'Neals (1.0) and Agents of SHIELD (0.8) tried to keep their hats in the ring with upticks from last week's finals. (But note that both shows had these numbers in the prelims last week and adjusted down.)

NBC's This Is Us (2.4) was still easily the star of the entertainment world. It had another two-tenth loss, but its The Voice (2.1) lead-in was down by even more. Chicago Fire (1.6) was even at 10/9c.

CBS was another network that held up best at 10/9c, with NCIS: New Orleans (1.3) on the uptick. But NCIS (1.7) and Bull (1.5) each lost a tenth.

Male-skewing The Flash (1.0) managed to hold up against the Series, but No Tomorrow could only muster up another shaky 0.3.

Many like to reminisce about the days when a TV program could end its season on a cliffhanger and capture the national imagination for the entire summer. But it looks like that is still possible even in 2016, as The Walking Dead (8.36) exploded from a 2015-16 season that was mostly in the 6's and somehow found the show's second-best raw number ever. Whatever historical adjustment you use for this show, it's pretty clearly a more impressive performance than the raw series high, an 8.65 for the fall premiere two years ago. It's also probably gonna be over six times the big four league average for this season, which is getting into (or even beyond) Friends finale territory.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Kevin Can Wait (1.7) adjusted up while Timeless (1.3) and Supergirl (0.8) and Jane the Virgin (0.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

CBS moved Kevin Can Wait (1.6) to the 8:00 lead-off slot and launched newbie Man with a Plan (1.6) at 8:30. Kevin shed a half-point in its 8/7c debut, which is probably not too far away from what should be expected when a Big Bang lead-in is lost. It was week three for 2 Broke Girls (1.4), which lost a tenth for the second straight week, and week two for The Odd Couple (1.1), which at least didn't get any worse than last week's premiere, in the 9:00 hour.

In the 10/9c drama wars, Timeless (1.4) remained on top but gave up at least a tenth from last week. Conviction (0.8) preliminarily had a minor rebound and will hope to hold it in finals this time. And Scorpion (1.2) shed a tenth.

Fox inched down with Gotham (1.1) and Lucifer (1.0), while the CW's Supergirl (0.9) and Jane the Virgin (0.6) are pending preemptions for Monday Night Football.

This is the first edition of Renewology's "Swings of the Week," looking at which shows this week had the biggest change in R%. How much did this week's ratings matter? This is our attempt at quantifying it. I will try to put this out every Tuesday going forward, though a lot of times I may not do much in the way of accompanying analysis.

FINALS UPDATE:Sunday Night Football (6.0) adjusted up while NFL Overrun (5.6) and 60 Minutes (3.0) and Football Night in America (2.7) and The Simpsons (R) (0.5) and Bob's Burgers (1.4) and The Simpsons (1.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

Against the return of gigahit The Walking Dead on AMC, things got even rougher for the ABC drama lineup. In direct competition with most of the TWD episode, Secrets and Lies (0.7) took the biggest hit, but Once Upon a Time (1.0) and Quantico (0.7) also inched down to new lows.

On Fox, some local overruns may affect the early part of their evening with a The Simpsons repeat (1.6), Bob's Burgers (1.6) and maybe the Simpsons (1.6) original. Beyond that, viewers quickly fled for Son of Zorn (1.0), Family Guy (1.2) and The Last Man on Earth (0.9). In the 9/8c hour, opposite the Dead premiere, Family Guy was down a tenth from its last airing without a national overrun, while Last Man tied its premiere Sunday rating.

CBS used the national overrun to boost 60 Minutes (3.6/2.7) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.7), leading into Madam Secretary (1.1) and Elementary (0.8 in the 10:30 half-hour). All these shows are subject to minor change since they started five minutes after their listed timeslots for the East/Central.

On a baseball-free night with a better matchup, Sunday Night Football averaged a low-5's prelim, up a good bit from last week. (Could this night have been even worse for broadcast if FS1 had been airing a baseball Game 7...?)

The CW finished its fall rollout with the returns of The Vampire Diaries (0.4) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (0.2). TVD opened with its most frequent Friday rating from last season, while CEG showed no early signs of benefiting from either awards love or the CW's tendency to hold up well on Friday.

It was a softer night than usual for the CBS veteran dramas, with Hawaii Five-0 (1.1) and Blue Bloods (1.1) dropping to new season lows (but still basically on par with the 1.0/1.2 from the year-ago evening). Those declines, however, made MacGyver look better with another 1.1 in the lead-off spot.

On Fox, The Exorcist (0.8) continued to keep itself surprisingly competitive in the Fox picture, bumping up by another tenth, and now up two tenths from that seemingly catastrophic 0.6 back in week two. Hell's Kitchen had its fourth consecutive 1.0.

It wasn't a pretty night for Dr. Ken on ABC, which was back down to 0.8 between Last Man Standing (1.1) and Shark Tank (1.2).

And after a poor return last week, NBC's Caught on Camera (0.7) inched back up to its more typical level from last season, while Dateline (1.0) had another win over 20/20 (0.9).

Friday, October 21, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Thursday Night Football (4.5) and The Good Place (1.0) and Legends of Tomorrow (0.7) adjusted up while Thursday Night Football Pregame (2.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

On the last Thursday of CBS' half of the Thursday Night Football package, NBC's comedies had a very sour final note before they begin dueling with the CBS comedies. Superstore (1.0) and The Good Place (0.9) both collapsed by multiple tenths week-to-week, going massively behind their previous lows. There was a new low for Chicago Med (1.2) at 9/8c, as well, but it doesn't look as bad given the 8/7c hour's problems and the multiple Chicago sports events in competition. The Blacklist started looking better by comparison with another 1.1 at 10/9c.

Fox sat out its usual drama duo for its latest musical event, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1.7). While it skewed quite young and basically doubled Fox's usual drama ratings, it went well below most of the other musical events from recent years, and was most comparable to Fox's telecast of The Passion (1.6) back in March.

ABC saw minor upticks in the last two hours with Notorious (0.9) and How to Get Away with Murder (1.2), leading out of a steady Grey's Anatomy (2.1).

And the CW took a somewhat surprising turn in week two of its Thursday drama lineup, as Legends of Tomorrow (0.6) actually held up while Supernatural (0.6) had a noticeable dip.